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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Of Hate, Guns & Hubris

Orlando
Shooter Was Reportedly a Regular at Pulse and Had a Profile on Gay Dating App.
This should not be surprising. Many of the hate crimes perpetrated against members
of the LGBTQ community involve disturbed individuals who are having difficulty,
due to societal pressures, accepting the fact that they might belong to this
community as well. But, does that take away from the involvement of other factors
as well, in this case, Islamist extremism and the easy access to assault weapons
(not to mention steroids and bipolar disease)? I don’t think so.

But while outreach to people with mental
problems is hampered by the sheer demographics involved, and countering violent
extremism is complicated by a variety of geopolitical considerations, gun
control is impeded only by our unwillingness to learn, and by pressures from
the NRA. A country that can remain divided on the issue of gun control after so
many tragedies have taken place in such short period of time is one that is heading
towards a period of serious social instability, despite its status as the world
sole superpower, and its role as a defender of democracy. Like all such developments,
this one is made inevitable only by our hubris. Hate, guns and hubris are quite
the dangerous mix.

But leave it to Samantha Bee to put things
in proper perspective

And while we are waiting for more clarity on
Orlando attacker and his motivations, I hope this story doesn’t fall off the
radar: Man Armed With Assault
Rifles, Explosives Intended to Target California Gay Pride Parade, Police Say.
The young man’s name is James Wesley Howell, a 20-year old from Indiana, and he
was arrested just as the Orlando attack was unfolding. Coincidence or
Coordination? If coincidence, then, it’s a reminder so timely
it’s divine of how widespread anti-gay sentiments are still at this stage in
history, and of how difficult the challenge
towards obtaining equal rights for all remains.

As for those who want to ignore the pervasive
Islamist dimension in this situation, these videos might help provide some
context. The imam in the first is a Shia figure from Iran.

Bilal Qureshi is right to speak of a Muslim
silence on gay rights. It’s been deafening so many of us in the human rights
community for decades now.

Muslims don't need to
apologize for the lives lost in Florida. Not every Muslim is responsible for
today's tragic incident. They however need to stop lying that violent Muslims
are not Muslims. Instead of coming up with lame excuses whether Hitler was a
Muslim or whether Muslims were responsible behind initiating the two world wars
and nuking Japan, try identifying the problem. The problem of violent
extremism, the problem of growing homophobia in the Muslim world... but since it
is difficult to stand up, take responsibility and work for reformation of
specific doctrines through counter narratives, therefore people go for
something easier which is to simply get away with it by saying "no Muslim
can do this" and "terrorism has no religion." The more we stay
in denial, the more we will be isolated.

The reason why Dylann Roof, the young
white man who murdered nine people in a black church in Charleston, South
Carolina, was not identified as terrorist is
a matter that deserves further analysis. Personally, I believe that the existence
of an ideological motivation, to go along with whatever personal motif is involved,
makes whatever crime committed worthy of being identified as an act of terrorism.
And yes, to me, that does mean that the line between hate crimes and terrorism
is imaginary.

Attacks in Dijon, France | 23.12.2014

The
Roots of Lone Wolf Terrorism “Why the West's Homegrown Jihadists Are All Sunni.” Andrew L.
Peek notes that “Essentially, there is an inverse correlation at work here: the more
state support a terrorist group receives, the more limited and geopolitical are
its objectives.” This corollary, according to Peek, seems to hold true
for Shia terrorist groups supported by Iran, but he hopes that, if Saudi succeeded
in getting the various radical Sunni Jihadi groups currently operating in Syria
and Iraq to accept its authority, that the corollary will apply to these groups
as well.

The problem in this argument lies in the
fact that such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda are really amorphous networks that have accepted
multiple sponsorships, including from Iran, despite existing sectarian differences,
and are, therefore, ultimately beholden to none. In fact, it is not always clear
whether the different groups claiming to be affiliated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda
are in fact truly committed to that. As precedents set in Iraq and Syria show,
there are units within the networks that seem to be run, if not completely manned,
by security agents working for the Assad regime, or even directly for Iranian and
even Russian intelligence. As such, acts that might initially appear as Lone Wolf
attacks could in fact constitute sophisticated false-flag security operations coming
in the service of certain geopolitical interests. Differentiating between the two
kinds of operations is important, but is something that various governments including
the American and other Western governments, may not want to do publicly for
their own geopolitical considerations.

Finally, and as the Pulse Attack itself
indicates the involvement of personal individual factors seem to play a major
role in this matter. State sponsorship, therefore, may not be effective here,
not unless these states were willing to monitor the mental health of their
recruits and to provide mental health benefits, including counselling to those
who needed.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World